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Recruiting in Franklin County, Ohio: July-August 1862

On Saturday, 19 July 1862, the Daily Ohio State Journal , Columbus, Ohio, published an article entitled “Report on Recruiting”. The article was a detailed set of instructions for establishing and conducting recruiting stations in Franklin County, Ohio. Its author, Captain Riley, had been tasked by the Franklin County Military Committee to provide a memorandum of standard operating procedures for orderly recruitment in Franklin County. This recruiting drive was a response to President Lincoln’s 2 July 1862 call for 300,000 volunteers. National defense policy, derived from the experiences of the War of 1812 and the Mexican War, 1846, established a small standing army but gave the President power to call for volunteers. How those volunteers would be recruited was the responsibility of individual states. The process used by Franklin County, Ohio, is summarized below from Captain Riley’s memorandum of instruction. First, Captain Riley’s memorandum instructed that there will be a recr

Civil War Sesquicentennial Notes: War Ends

This concludes the series of Civil War Sesquicentennial Notes I published in 2011 in family emails focusing on the last days of the Civil War. Sunday, 9 April 1865 . It was Palm Sunday. As Grant had mused the previous day, Lee was considering a fight. Lee thought an attack against Sheridan’s Cavalry Corps north of Appomattox Courthouse might provide time and space for the rest of his army to retreat toward Leesburg. Confederate scouts and pickets reported that two more Union corps had maneuvered behind Lee, blocking his exit. Some of his staff officers urged that they let the men exfiltrate to fight as guerrillas. Lee, it is believed, rejected the idea saying that they would just become marauders and would be hunted down by the Union cavalry. Guerrilla warfare, or “bushwhacking”, was more dishonorable than surrendering. Even so, Lee said that he “would rather die a thousand deaths” than surrender to General Grant. Lee, of course, did no such thing. Rather he sent a dispatch through

A Review of "Chancellorsville Battle App"

On Saturday 20 May 2012 I visited the Chancellorsville National Battlefield Park and used the “Chancellorsville Battle App”. The app is available from the Civil War Trust at Civilwar.org/battleapps/, and features interactive GPS enabled maps; three GPS guided battlefield tours; maps; text; primary documents and photos; video presentations by an expert historian; orders of battle; time line; information about the park; and information about other historic points of interest in the area. This app, which is free, is the result of a joint venture of the Civil War Trust, The Virginia Department of Transportation, and the developer, NeoTreks, Inc. The project directors were Rob Shenk of the Civil War Trust and Michael Bullock of NeoTreks, Inc. The historians for the project were Robert K. Kirk, who appears in the videos, and Eric Mink, historian at the Fredericksburg-Spotsylvania National Military Park. This app is designed to be used on the battlefield or as a stand alone educational p

Saturday, 8 April 1865: Notes are Exchanged

No word from Lee. Tension rises at Union headquarters. Grant has a persistent headache. Mead is suffering nausea. Around noon a reply comes from General Lee. He asks Grant for a discussion concerning “the restoration of peace”. The wording is vague, but it is clearly a request to negotiate a political solution. Grant immediately replies that he has no authority to negotiate a political settlement and his request for Lee’s surrender stands. President Lincoln anticipated this moment. On 3 March 1865 (the evening before he gave his second inaugural address) he sent a letter to General Grant in which he specified that if Lee were to surrender, Grant had no authority other than a military surrender of Lee’s army. Lincoln would retain the power for political negotiations if any were required. This is an important document because it affirms Article II, Section 2, of the United States Constitution that places the President, a civilian, in command of the armed forces, and thus responsible fo

Friday, 7 April 1865, East of Appomattox

Friday, 7 April 1865. The action yesterday at Saylor’s Creek had cut off a third of Lee’s army, captured 6,000 Confederate soldiers, and destroyed most of the wagon’s in Lee’s supply column. This morning all three columns of the Army of the Potomac continue to advance. General Grant sent a messenger under a flag of truce through the lines with a letter to Lee. Grant asked Lee to surrender immediately. Lee responded by asking what were Grant’s terms? Grant replied that his terms would be the same as he offered at Vicksburg in 1863: parole until exchanged. Lee and Grant both knew that Lee’s surrender would virtually end the war. The offer of parole was a formality. The day passed without a reply from Lee.

The Final Days of the Army of Northern Virginia (ANV)

Let’s catch up to General Grant’s pursuit of Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia (ANV) in the closing week of the Civil War. On, Tuesday, 4 April 1865, President Lincoln visited Richmond. I have told this story along with my visit to Richmond in 2007 in Clio Muses, “Lincoln’s Walk”, 6 December 2007, and invite you to scroll though this blog and read that essay. On 3 April 1865 the last of the Confederate forces evacuated Richmond and various Union cavalry units moved into the city. Richmond had been under siege for several weeks; many buildings had been burned, some by the Confederates as they retreated; and the Confederate government (along with most white residents) had fled the city. Lincoln had been visiting Grant and on his return to Washington, D. C., he stopped at Richmond. Accompanied by Admiral Porter and a Navy guard, Lincoln walked from Rocket’s Landing on the James River to the Capital and President Davis’ house. He walked around Davis’ office and, according to eye-wi

Civil War Sesquicentennial Notes, 2 April 1865

As General Picket is attempted to withdraw from yesterday’s devastation at Five Forks , General Grant directs the Army of the Potomac (AOP) to pursue Lee in three columns. The center column composed of three infantry corps and part of the Sheridan ’s Cavalry Corps will follow the main body of the Army of Northern Virginia (ANV). The columns to the left and right (or north and south) will use forced marches to outflank and outmarch the ANV in order to circle around it. The first objective of the southern column was to interdict the Richmond & Danville Railroad south of Amelia Court House thus preventing supplies from reaching the ANV or from the ANV using the rails to flee south. At this point, the ANV consisted of about 30,000 troops, 200 guns, and around a 1,000 wagons. If Grant is successful in the next couple of days, those wagons will not pick up supplies at Amelia Court House. It has been over 72 hours since Lee’s soldiers have eaten. Their horses are becoming so weak from hun

Civil War Sesquicentennial Notes, 1 April 1865

1 April 1865: The retreat to Appomattox continues. Sheridan renews his attack on Lee’s flank at Five Forks , VA. Lee orders General Picket (of Gettysburg fame) to “Hold at all costs.” By evening the cost to the Army of Northern Virginia is 5,000 casualties, the loss of General Picket’s division, and a valuable road network that now would serve to speed up the Union attack. “. . . the Army of the Potomac , officers and men, were so elated by the reflection that at last they were following up a victory it its end, that they preferred marching without rations to running a possible risk of letting the enemy elude them. So the march was resumed. . . .” General Ulysses S. Grant, The Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant William S. McFeely, ed. (De Capo Press: New York ), 1982, p. 543.

Civil War Sesquicentennial Notes, March 1865

It is Friday, 31 March 1865. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia (ANV) has withdrawn from the trenches around Petersburg, Virginia  and is retreating to Appomattox Court House. Lee must reach Appomattox quickly because he desperately needs the rations that have been moved by train from Danville , Virginia to Appomattox . On 30 March General Grant released General Sheridan’s cavalry to move fast and turn Lee’s left flank. Philip Henry Sheridan, born in Albany , New York in 1831 and graduated from West Point in 1853, had been given command of the Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac (AOP) the previous year. In September and October 1864 Sheridan , in a swift and hard hitting campaign, defeated General Early and drove him out of the Shenandoah Valley . For the entire war the Valley had been the “bread basket” for the ANV. Now, about five months later, Sheridan strikes hard on the left flank of Lee’s retreating army at White Oak Road, Dinwiddie Court House, Virginia again reducin